1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an incinerator, more particularly to an incinerator with an ash control unit that uniformly and effectively distributes and cools ash in an ash receiving chamber of the incinerator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional incinerators for combustion of hull or shell waste of agricultural crops normally include a furnace with a perforated supporting plate that defines a combustion chamber thereabove and an ash receiving chamber therebelow in the furnace. High temperature ash and unburned particles of hull and shell waste are deposited on the supporting plate, and are stirred via a rake disposed above the supporting plate for moving the high temperature ash into the ash receiving chamber via through-holes in the supporting plate. The conventional incinerator is disadvantageous in that the ash deposited in the ash receiving chamber is difficult to collect due to a relatively high temperature thereof and is not uniformly distributed due to blockage of some of the through-holes by the deposited ash and unburned hull and shell waste.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an incinerator with an ash control unit that is capable of overcoming the aforesaid drawbacks associated with the prior art.
According to the present invention, an incinerator comprises: a furnace with a supporting plate that defines a combustion chamber thereabove and an ash receiving chamber therebelow in the furnace, the supporting plate being formed with a plurality of through-holes for passage of high temperature ash therethrough; and an ash control unit including a partitioning member that divides the ash receiving chamber into upper and lower ash chambers and that defines a vertically extending ash channel communicated with the upper and lower ash chambers, a rake that is disposed over the partitioning member within the upper ash chamber for stirring and permitting uniform distribution of the high temperature ash on the partitioning member and for moving the high temperature ash into the ash channel, and a rotary member that is disposed rotatably in and that is transverse to the ash channel and that is formed with a plurality of angularly spaced apart fins which carry the high temperature ash falling from the upper ash chamber to the lower ash chamber, thereby retarding discharge of the high temperature ash, which, in turn, cools the high temperature ash as the ash is carried from the upper ash chamber to the lower ash chamber.